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Progress Report: H Flude & Co

SIMON FLUDE doesn’t like women with bare legs — or even women in trousers — but as managing director of H Flude & Co, the hosiery manufacturer, he wouldn’t, writes Philip Smith.

Since Enterprise Network visited just over a year ago, the company has been plunged into administration.

The challenge

Like all hosiery manufacturers, Flude’s profits were being squeezed on its core, budget-priced tights. Changing fashions and competition from overseas were problems, but the biggest issue was the way Flude sold its wares. Budget tights are sold in supermarkets and chain stores. If certain lines don’t move, the hosiery firm does not get paid.

Firms such as Flude keep producing these high-volume, low-margin lines, he said, because of the cost of closing production facilities, but also because this bulk business covers the company’s costs — allowing hosiery manufacturers to make their lower-volume, higher-profit fashion ranges. It was here that Flude was looking to